Re: CHAT: Re : CHAT: Re: minimum phonemes, was Re: vrindo
| From: | Matt Pearson <mpearson@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, June 21, 1999, 4:10 |
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Mathias wrote:
>> Is it just my imagination, but do most if not all small-phoneme-
>> inventory languages belong to isolated islands out in the middle of
>> the ocean? :-)
There's an old joke among linguists about intrepid Polynesian
sailors throwing consonants overboard to keep the canoes afloat...
>speaking of natlangs, hawaiian and tahitian are closely related so no wonder,
>but as you know, links between between them, japanese and malayan languages
>are diputed so maybe insularity is a reason for that ?
The historical connection between Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Malay is
far from disputed. All three are Austronesian languages - and fairly
closely related ones at that, since they all belong to the Malayo-
Polynesian branch. As for Japanese, I've heard some linguists posit
an Austronesian substrate in the language (making Japanese historically
an Altaic-Austronesian creole, perhaps?), but I don't know if that
idea is very widely accepted.
Matt.
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Matt Pearson
mpearson@ucla.edu
UCLA Linguistics Department
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543
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